Day 8 - Drainage, Drainage, Drainage

With 8 greens now approved by Mr. Doak, the MacCurrach team is fully engaged in getting the drain tile and 4" gravel layer installed in these greens. Yesterday the 3rd green was completed and the 15th and 16th greens were works in progress. Here are some photos of yesterday's tiling efforts:



The 3rd green is now complete and ready for the root zone mix to be installed.



The 15th green is about 70% complete and should be finished today.


Another note from yestrday's work is that some rough shaping of the tees began to take place. Below is the 5th tee during that process.

Day 7 - Mr. Doak Begins Approval Process

Yesterday was again a very large day for the renovation process as Mr. Doak began to survey the work his team of shapers had prepared for his visit. Mr. Doak took a patient approach to the approval process and did not decide anything quickly or without thought. By lunch time, he had "released" the 3rd, 4th, and 15th greens back to the contractor to begin the drainage process. The RGD team continued to work on the 12th, 16th, 18th and 2nd green after lunch, and by the end of the day, they had released all of those greens to the contractor.

The shaping on the new 17th green site began in earnest yesterday and was "roughed-in" by the end of the evening. Today, the RGD team will focus their efforts on this site as well as the 5th green site in hopes of getting both of these greens approved before Mr. Doak leaves on Thursday. Mr. Doak will return next week to review what we hope will be the final 9 greens.

Here are some photos of yesterday work:



Once Mr. Doak approved the green, the MacCurrach team used a traditional bunker rake to smooth and prep the floor for drainage.



The entire floor of the bunker was packed using the vibrating plate tamper seen in the center of this photo.



Drainage trenches were then cut using a mini-excavator and the MacCurrach team did an outstanding job to ensure the sub-grade was continuously raked as not to tarnish Mr. Doak's work.



Once the drain tile is installed in the trenches, the gravel is then placed in the trenches to completely fill the trenches and an additional 4 inches is placed throughout the "well" of the green.



Here is the 3rd green at the end of work yesterday. Notice the systematic approach to work our way out of the well and not distribute the gravel layer. Also, notice the grade stakes that help make sure the gravel is evenly distributed to a 4 inch depth.

Day 6 - Moving Earth

With the core-out of all the greens completed on Saturday, Monday became a day of moving earth from the existing tees. Much the extra soil associated with the "raised" tees on hole numbers 2, 3, 4, 12 and 16 was being hauled to the new 17th green site. The goal was to get enough material there by Mr. Doak's visit, which was scheduled for the next day, to begin roughing in the new green site. This goal was easily completed by the end of the working day.

Additionally, all the remaining tees are now stripped of the old sod and ready for shaping to begin. The shaping process should begin sometime near the end of the current week.

Day 5 - Greens Core-Out Complete!

In just 5 days all the greens are now officially cored-out and ready for the shapers to work their magic. The only green that remains is the putting green which, as I posted before, will remain intact as long as possible for member use. Most of the tees have been stripped of all sod and the hauling of excess dirt to the new 17th green site will begin in mass Monday morning. The shaping of sub-grades continued yesterday and to date we now have the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 16th and 18th greens ready for Mr. Doak to review.

With two days before his visit, and with the shapers in the field as I type this, it appears that we could have 8 or 9 greens ready for Mr. Doak's visit. As Mr. Doak approves some or all of these sub-grades, the MacCurrach team is prepared to immediately begin prepping the floors, installing the drainage, vapor barrier, pea gravel and mix. At this point, I would be excited because we would have taken our first step towards constructing, and not destructing, the golf course.

One other note from yesterday's work is that the MacCurrach team began removing all the sand from the greenside bunkers on #8. This was done at the request of the RGD team as they intend to make some bunker adjustments to this greens as they shape the green itself. I have included a photo of this work below.



One of the things I've heard from members is that they hope the greens are not "flat and boring" when completed. I have included a photo below that should put any of that concern to rest. Notice the roof line in the background as it relates to the angle of the bulldozer in the foreground. I think it is safe to say that the dozer is anything but flat!!